Markov to retire this weekend

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Sport/Inj ... 91100.html

Injury forces Markov to retire

February 28, 2007 - 3:39PM

Former world pole vault champion Dmitri Markov of Australia has been forced to retire due to a chronic foot injury.

Markov, 31, will bow out in Friday night's World Athletics Tour meet at Melbourne's Olympic Park.

Markov finished sixth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics representing Belarus before emigrating to Australia the following year.

He improved to fifth at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Markov's career highlight came at the following year's world championships when he claimed the gold medal with a personal best clearance of 6.05m.

Only peerless Ukrainian Sergey Bubka has ever jumped higher.

Markov has competed in a couple of domestic meets this season, but the foot injury made it impossible for him to train for days afterwards.

He will make his swansong in a world-class meet at Olympic Park also featuring three other members of pole vault's elite six-metre club - Australian Paul Burgess and Americans Toby Stevenson and Brad Walker - and last year's world No.1 Steve Hooker.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/mar ... 09136.html

Foot fault prompts Markov to leap his last


Len Johnson
March 1, 2007

DMITRI Markov, the 2001 pole vault world champion, will bow out of competition at tomorrow night's Melbourne A-Series meeting.

A chronic foot injury, which has prevented Markov training for up to 10 days after each of his competitions this year, has precipitated his decision.

It is fitting that Markov has his last competition in Melbourne. He holds the meeting record at 5.80 metres, though one of the safest bets on offer is that it will go tomorrow night.

Maybe the great Markov will summon up one final effort and break it himself. Winning the competition against last year's world No. 1 and No. 2, Steve Hooker and Paul Burgess, and American six-metre men Brad Walker and Toby Stevenson, will be another question.

Markov won the 2001 world championships in Edmonton despite injuring his foot between the qualifying competition and the final. He strode into a chair leg while walking barefoot around his hotel room.

Continual ice and physiotherapy treatment over the next 36 hours not only got Markov to the line but allowed him to produce the best championship performance ever. He had a painkilling injection just before the final, then vaulted 6.05 to win â€â€